The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) has revealed that the price of Petrol 93 and Petrol 95 will decrease by 52c a litre from Wednesday, but the prices of diesel will increase by R1.23 and R1.38 a litre for diesel with a 0.005% and 0.05% sulphur content, respectively.

The department notes that these changes are based on various factors, including a decrease in the average Brent crude oil price, from $86.53/bbl to $82.37/bbl, for the period under review.

"The impact of renewed US/Iran tensions which caused the price to increase up to a $100 mark, was offset by the fact that the prices had already decreased significantly the previous month and the first half of this month due to the ceasefire memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, as well as lower global demand for crude oil," it points out.

Further, the DMPR notes that the average international product prices of petrol decreased during the period under review, while the prices of diesel and illuminating paraffin increased due to supply shortages caused by Russia/Ukraine conflict, which resulted in diesel export restrictions by Russia.

"The situation was compounded by the Middle East refineries that were operating below capacity. These factors led to lower contributions to the Basic Fuel Prices (BFP) of petrol by 6.08c a litre, and higher contributions to the BFP of diesel and illuminating paraffin by 182.62c a litre (c/l) and 143.32c a litre, respectively," the department points out.

Meanwhile, the rand depreciated slightly, on average, against the dollar, from R16.34 to R16.46, during the period under review. This led to higher contributions to the BFP of petrol, diesel and Illuminating Paraffin by 6.37c, 8.14c and 7.89c a litre, respectively.

Further, the DMPR notes that the cumulative slate amounted to a negative balance of R7.42-billion for petrol and diesel at the end of June. In line with the provisions of the Self-Adjusting Slate Levy Mechanism, the slate levy of 61.38c a litre will be implemented
in the price structures of petrol and diesel with effect from August 5.

The Slate Levy has decreased by 52.56c a litre, from R1.14 a litre.